AHCA members flying to Washington to lobby for cancellation of funding cuts

As fiscal cliff negotiations continue, nine state chapters of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living have sent representatives to meet with lawmakers in the nation's capital.

Leaders from Utah, Florida, California, Ohio, Idaho, New York, Maryland, Montana, and South Dakota will talk to members of the House of Representatives and Senate and focus on therapy assessments, therapy caps and staving off sequestration cuts, spokesman Greg Crist said. The association launched a campaign last month pushing against the 2% across-the-board Medicare cut scheduled to hit in January.

The representative contingent of state leaders will converge on Washington on Wednesday and Thursday in an effort to make providers' views better known. Traditionally, annual AHCA Capitol Hill fly-ins involving leaders from all state chapters have occurred each spring.

Drug substitutions saved the government $13 million last year, but more drug substitutions under Medicare Part B would have saved an additional $6 million, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services concluded in a recent report to Congress.